Apple Will Ship Both A “High-End And Low-End” iPhone In September, WSJ Reports

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Apple is going to ship new iPhones next month – two different new variants, including a “low-end” and a “high-end” variant, according to a new Wall Street Journal report today. At this stage, we’ve seen lots to suggest that Apple would indeed announce two versions of the iPhone at its rumored event on September 10, but the WSJ makes it a pretty sure bet.

The WSJ doesn’t get into specifics about what we’ll see from new iPhones, but it’s likely that we’ll get the iPhone 5S, which would follow in the footsteps of the iPhone 5 with a metal body similar to the previous design (with a new double-flash for the camera and higher specs), as well as an iPhone 5C with a rear plastic case in multiple colors (likely very similar to the leaks from Sonny Dickson (source for image above) we’ve been seeing recently). I’d say both the names are subject to change, but the material details are essentially a known quantity at this point.

We also know that there will almost certainly be a new gold colorway for the iPhone 5S, as reported by TechCrunch this weekend and confirmed by AllThingsD earlier today. A ship date of later in September would also be in keeping with the timing of previous iPhone launches, where hardware typically hits consumer shelves a maximum of two weeks after the announcement.

Two new iPhones at once would seem to represent a new level of difficulty for Apple’s supply chain, but frequently-accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said earlier today that Apple could replace the iPhone 5 entirely with the iPhone 5C (or whatever it ends up being called), making it likely that a lot of the production processes from that device would be shifted into place for the low-cost variant.